Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston MA 02129, USA.
Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2009 Oct;19(5):504-10. doi: 10.1016/j.gde.2009.09.002. Epub 2009 Oct 28.
Organogenesis depends upon a well-ordered series of inductive events involving coordination of molecular pathways that regulate the generation and patterning of specific cell types. Key questions in organogenesis involve the identification of the molecular mechanisms by which proteins interact to organize distinct pattern formation and cell fate determination. Tooth development is an excellent context for investigating this complex problem because of the wealth of information emerging from studies of model organisms and human mutations. Since there are no obvious sources of stem cells in adult human teeth, any attempt to create teeth de novo will probably require the reprogramming of other cell types. Thus, the fundamental understanding of the control mechanisms responsible for normal tooth patterning in the embryo will help us understand cell fate specificity and may provide valuable information towards tooth organ regeneration.
器官发生依赖于一系列有序的诱导事件，涉及调节特定细胞类型生成和模式形成的分子途径的协调。器官发生中的关键问题涉及到确定蛋白质相互作用以组织不同的模式形成和细胞命运决定的分子机制。牙齿发育是研究这个复杂问题的一个极好的背景，因为从模式生物和人类突变的研究中涌现出了大量的信息。由于成人牙齿中没有明显的干细胞来源，因此任何从头开始制造牙齿的尝试都可能需要重新编程其他细胞类型。因此，对胚胎中正常牙齿模式形成的控制机制的基本理解将有助于我们理解细胞命运的特异性，并可能为牙齿器官再生提供有价值的信息。
